Sea Dogs 2

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Bethesda stops by to show off the latest build.

By Steve Butts

The first Sea Dogs was a diamond in the rough. While the game was immensely compelling a few design decisions and a less-than-perfect presentation kept the game from enjoying the success that it ought to have had. Luckily publisher Bethesda and developer Akella are hard at work on a sequel that makes the game much more playable, in terms of both concept and function.

Pete Hines of Bethesda Softworks stopped by earlier today to show off the newest build and talk about some of the changes fans of the first game can expect to see when the sequel is released next spring. The new game obviously adds another level of polish and detail to the graphics but, impressive as they are, it's the gameplay changes that most interested us. New and clearer quests, a greater focus on land-based operations and some improved boarding actions are the three big topics we talked about today.

To start with, there are two characters to choose from -- a lady-pirate named Danielle Greene or a man-pirate named Blaze Devlin. (With a name like Blaze, the whole "man" thing was in question but the character model at least looks like a man.) Pete explains the "quest is slightly different depending on which character you choose" but follows largely the same path. It's sort of like Resident Evil where the two characters show up in each other's missions from time to time.

The gang at Bethesda were surprised at how many Xbox players went with the free form quests in Morrowind. They had assumed that the console crowd would prefer a more structured experience than the PC crowd. But other gamers were simply too intimidated by the depth of the game. So to please both camps, the developers of Sea Dogs 2 will include "a really strong story line that you could play from beginning to end and not worry about the extraneous stuff." But they also promise that you can completely ignore the main quest and have just as much fun trying out the extra missions.

The original Sea Dogs had four main quests and storylines each specific to a particular nation or power. But moving between these proved confusing for some gamers so the team will be focusing on one 40-50 hour single player story that is available to all characters regardless of faction allegiance. It's somewhat like joining one of the guilds in Morrowind -- you could be allied with the Thieves' or Fighters Guild and still participate in the same basic story.

The game structures the experience gained through each encounter by comparing the relative strengths of the ships involved. You are, therefore, rewarded for taking on opponents who are bigger and badder than you. The game's lack of emphasis on getting the biggest ship with the most guns is refreshing. You can still play that way if you like, but the game offers quicker advancement for those who are willing to make do with less.

For those of you who aren't keen on the main story or faction quests, there's a random quest generator in the game that provides you with virtually unlimited content. Since completion of the main quest doesn't end the game, you can pick and choose your content pretty freely. Somewhat like the varied, level-specific monster spawns in Morrowind, this game produces quests that are "particularly catered to your character at that given point. So if you're a fairly new captain with a small ship, you'll get a quest that fits that character."

Moving forward with the live testing of the game, the team will be exploring how these random, more generic quests will fit in with the faction standings in the game. As you start the game, you won't have a faction affiliation with the game's six powers -- England, France, Spain, Holland, Portugal or the pirates. You'll have a standing reputation with each but you're free to associate with whomever you like. Once you have a faction, the random generator will take it in to account when assigning missions. "Obviously," says Pete, "we're not going to give you random quests to go sink a French merchant ship if you're playing the French."

Pete also points out one of the weakness of the first game. "In Sea Dogs," he says, "land was nothing more than refueling station" and there were only a few key places you could visit in each town. It simply didn't fit the pace of the game (or the excitement quite honestly) you could find at sea. Before you'd simply walk from the shipyard to the tavern and be done with it. This time around "Towns are wholly explorable. All the doors, while they may be locked, are all active locations, place you can go." There will even be quests that don't require you to go to sea at all.

In addition to exploring the towns, players can now venture outside the walls to explore the islands themselves. The range of movement here is fairly limited because the team didn't want to be faced with the prospect of creating an entirely new roleplaying game centered on the islands. You'll walk down fairly linear paths in your exploration of the land around the towns, but this helps to give the game a much-needed sense of direction and purpose. The paths will split so you'll have some choice -- you just can't walk anywhere you like.

You'll run across numerous encounters outside of towns. Bandits can be lurking by the road to waylay travelers. That'll be a nice surprise when you come walking by. Or perhaps there are pirates holed up in a nearby cave beyond the reach of the town guards. You can stumble across some of these encounters entirely spontaneously; others will have to be activated through mission vendors.